The social sciences have taught us that, as the 1960s saying goes, the personal IS political (and, of course, vice versa). One of the themes of my own interviews has been to connect the dots between the psychological health of individuals in society with the sociological health of the communities we live in. Today we will continue the exploration of where humanity is today, socially, and where we might like to see it change…and how. Our special guests this time around will be with sociologist Charles Derber and psychoanalyst Paul Verhaeghe. Audio

Interview with Anna Fishzon, 18/08/2015

Feeling exhausted, hopeless, and anxious? You might be suffering from symptoms of neoliberalism, according to Paul Verhaeghe. In What About Me?: The Struggle for Identity in a Market-Based Society (Scribe Publications, 2014), he takes on "Enron society," demonstrating how the core insights and principles of psychoanalysis can be brought to bear on social relations, history, and ideology.
Podcast

What about Me? The struggle for identity in a market-based society

Paul Verhaeghe in conversation with Lisa Appignanesi
In What about Me? Paul Verhaeghe’s main concern is how social change has led to a psychic crisis and altered the way we think about ourselves. He investigates the effects of 30 years of neoliberalism, free-market forces, privatisation, and the relationship between our engineered society and individual identity. It turns out that who we are is, as always, determined by the context in which we live. Tonight he discusses these concerns with Lisa Appignanesi, former Chair of the Freud Museum and author most recently of Trials of Passion: Crimes in the Name of Love and Madness. Podcast

Ted-X talk Hedgehogs united

Humans are like hedgehogs on a chilly autumn evening. We curl up next to one another to stay warm. But if we come too close we prick each other. So we move away but evidently get cold again. What follows is a never-ending movement. Prof.dr. Paul Verhaeghe speaks of the effects of thinking in terms of goals and profit. Full text